Googleyness, Culture-fit and Culture-add. Google’s way of hiring.
Googleyness is a set of qualities and values which all of the Google employees share in common. It is an important criterion to get a job at Google.
When I learned about the 10 qualities of Googleyness, I was curious to know more about it. So I searched about different definitions for it and the most appropriate definition I could find was presented by Laszlo Bock, formerly the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, Inc.
He defined Googleyness as, “Attributes like enjoying fun (who doesn’t), a certain dose of intellectual humility (it’s hard to learn if you can’t admit that you might be wrong), a strong measure of conscientiousness (we want owners, not employees), comfort with ambiguity (we don’t know how our business will evolve, and navigating Google internally requires dealing with a lot of ambiguity), and evidence that you’ve taken some courageous or interesting paths in your life.”
Here are 10 qualities of Googleyness:
- Uncertainty is your best friend.
- Striving for Excellence
- Keeping an eye on the goals
- Being Proactive
- Going the extra mile
- Doing something nice for the others
- Rewarding great performance
- Being humble, and letting go of the ego.
- Have a sense of humor
- Lead like you want others to lead
However, it is extremely important to note that Googleyness is strictly not Culture-fit. Both terms are different and google internally clarified this thing in 2017 to avoid bias in the hiring process.
When it comes to culture-fit, there is another term creating hype in Silicon Valley. And that is “culture-add.”
According to Harvard Business Review,
“Culture fit is the likelihood that someone will reflect and be able to adapt to the core beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that make up your organization.”
Whereas,
“Culture-add is encouraging hiring individuals who are different intellectually, who can contribute new ideas, come with new perspectives and experiences.”
The culture-add trend has added diversity to the organizations and helps in places where new ideas and perspectives are required to expand markets and introduce new products.
However, for missions focused on execution and operational success, culture-fit will suit more to the job role.
